Clinical laboratory testing has changed and improved remarkably over the past 70 years. Initially, tests or assays were performed manually, and generally utilized large quantities of serum, blood or other materials/body fluids. As mechanical technology developed in the industrial work place, similar technology was introduced into the clinical laboratory. With the introduction of new technology, methodologies were also improved in an effort to improve the quality of the results produced by the individual instruments, and to minimize the amount of specimen required to perform each test.
More recently, instruments have been developed to increase the efficiency of testing procedures by reducing turn around time and decreasing the volumes necessary to perform various assays. Present directions in laboratory testing focus on cost containment procedures and instrumentation. Laboratory automation is one area in which cost containment procedures are currently being explored. Robotic engineering has evolved to such a degree that various types of robots have been applied in the clinical laboratory setting.
The main focus of prior art laboratory automation relies on the implementation of conveyor systems to connect areas of the clinical laboratory. Known conveyor systems in the laboratory setting utilize separate conveyor segments to move specimens from a processing station to a specific laboratory work station. In order to obtain cost savings, the specimens are sorted manually, and grouped in a carrier rack to be conveyed to a specific location. In this way, a carrier will move a group of 5-20 specimens from the processing location to the specific work station to perform a single test on each of the specimens in the carrier.
While grouping a plurality of specimens in a single carrier may be more cost efficient where every specimen requires only a single specific test, and none of the specimens within a carrier require special priority, it is not uncommon in the hospital environment for a specimen to be subjected to a variety of different tests, or for a particular specimen to require a very short turn around time. In such an event, the current automation system could not be utilized, and the particular specimen would have to be manually moved to various work test stations based upon the time constraints and tests designated for the specimen.
Another problem with prior attempts at laboratory automation is in tracking the specimen and reporting the results of the specimen tested. Test results can serve as the basis for requiring additional testing of a particular specimen reflex or spawned testing. If the test results are required within a short time period, rapid and efficient reporting of test results can improve laboratory quality and efficiency.